Riders
In , a rider is an additional provision added to a or other measure under the consideration by a , having little connection with the subject matter of the bill. Riders are usually created as a tactic to pass a controversial provision that would not pass as its own bill. Occasionally, a controversial provision is attached to a bill not to be passed itself but to prevent the bill from being passed (in which case it is called a or poison pill). United States Federal legislation The use of riders is prevalent and customary in the Senate of the , as the Senate's rules of germaneness are much more tolerant than those of the . In the House, riders are generally not allowed, as any amendment to a bill must deal with the substance of the bill under consideration. Riders are most effective when attached to an important bill, such as an , because to or postpone such a bill could delay funding to governmental programs, causing serious problems. When the veto is an all-or-nothing power as it is in the , the executive must either accept the riders or reject the entire bill. The practical consequence of the custom of using riders is to constrain the veto power of the . The was passed to allow the to veto single objectionable items within bills passed by , but the struck down the act as in . Riders may be unrelated to the subject matter of bills to which they are attached and are commonly used to introduce unpopular provisions. For example, a rider to stop was attached to a bill relating to military and veteran construction projects. Another rider has been the which since 1976 has been attached to s to prevent paying for most . Another was the in 1982 and 1983 to restrict financing of the Contras in Nicaragua. A recent notable example of a rider was in the . An amended version of the in 2010 that was signed into law by only one week before, the amended bill included a rider for the , whose reform was completely unrelated to the broader bill's primary focus on . State legislation Riders exist at the state level as well. For just one example, a 2005 bill in that was primarily focused on limiting the number of members that cities can appoint to boards of parks and recreation unexpectedly included a rider that made the the official language of the state of West Virginia. Most members of the did not realize that the rider had been entered into the bill until it had already passed both . Then-West Virginia governor , although a personal supporter of the , promptly vetoed the bill due to a provision in the that , which also makes riders unconstitutional in West Virginia. To counteract riders, 43 of the 50 s have provisions in their allowing the use of s so that the executive can veto single objectionable items within a bill, without affecting the main purpose or effectiveness of the bill. Europe France The has taken an increasingly hard view against riders, which it considers unconstitutional and contrary to the rules of procedure of the . In 1985 the Council started striking down amendment to laws because they were unrelated to the subject of the law. Two special categories of riders merit mention: the "budgetary riders", attached to budget bills, and "social riders", attached to the budget bill for social security organizations, clauses that have no link to the budget or to the social security budgets, respectively. Hungary In 2005, the struck down the yearly national budget law in its entirety, because almost half of the paragraphs were not related to state fiscals at all, but modified 44 other existing pieces of legislation, which concerned health regulations, public education and foreign relations. This judicial ruling restricted the government's future options in bypassing due parliamentary debate and imposing certain reforms unilaterally. United Kingdom In some legislative systems, such as the , riders are prevented by the existence of the of a bill that describes the full purpose of the bill. Any part of the bill that falls outside the scope of the long title would not be permitted. However, legislators often bypass this limitation by naming a bill vaguely, such as by appending "and for connected purposes" to the name. Philippines The is prohibited to add riders in bills. According to Article VI, Section 26(1) of the , bills must espouse a particular subject which has to be conveyed in the title thereof. References Category:Civilization